St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-12
And Intimatcs That Either He
or the Secretary Must
Get Out.
The Sioux City Corn Palace
Visited by Chauncey De-
pew and Vanderbilt.
Handsome Elk'S Trial---An
Interstate Case---North-
western Notes.
Special to the Globe.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11.-1f President
Cleveland were here to-day Commits
siOner Sparks would resign, OF else
Secretary Lamar would revoke his re-
cent decision in the matter of the st.
Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha indemnity
lands. l had a conversation this after
noon with Mr.. Sparks, and. although
his entire remarks were not for publica
ton, he permits me to express my own
opinion of his feelings upon the subject.
He said that the decision of Secretary
Lamar upon the case in question has cha
grined and. embarrassed him more than
all that has hitherto occurred during
his administration of the land depart
ment. He showed me the laws and
precedentS which seem to make his
position impregnable, and yet Mr.. La
mar has set him aside and given nearly
100000 acres of public lands to a cor
OF Commissioner Sparks it appears that
JUDGE DAVID DAVIS
in the supreme court decided in the case
of the LeaVenWOrth, Lawrence IL Gal
weston railroad that they were not Ell
titled to indemnity for lands and mill
tary reservations. Attorney General
Devens, in the case of the Western rail-
road of Minnesota. now known as the
st. Paul & Northern Pacific railroad,
which is operated by the Northern Pa
cific, gave an opinion in which the de-
ciSiOn of Judge Davis was quoted and
referred to as good law, settling the
question. Secretary SchurZ acted there
upon and adopted the opinion of Devens.
Commissioner Sparks referring to these
grounds for his position said: "In
spite of all this. the secretary has given
to the Chicago, st. Paul, Minneapolis &
Omaha railroad nearly 100000 acres of
public lands which are in reservations,
swamp lands and also part of a lake
which never had any land on it's sur
the road is allowed is given by the sec
rotary upon the ground that, in the
case of Barney VS.. the Winona
IL st. Peter railroad, the supreme
court stated that the decision of Judge
Davis had never been rendered as de-
ciSion of the court; that the mere state
ment gave no grounds for the opening
of this great amount of fraud, and the
secretary has been miSled into making
an erroneous decision. Speaking of the
matter more fully, Commissioner Sparks
said a few things concerning the evic-
tons of settlers in Iowa, referring to the
fact that he Sparks had decieed against
that corporation because their lands had
NEVER BEEN EARNED
and had been reversed by Lamar. He
said that as soon as Lamar gave the rail
road right to the land in question, the
corporation gave its right to foreign
syndicate. and these evictions follow
naturally. | cannot too strongly empha-
size the fact that Commissioner Sparks
is intensely interested in the present
status of affairs. There is certainly i'm
patience, if not bitterness, in the
feeling towards the secretary. He
mentions the fact that the corporations
had counsel urging their claims and
misleading Lamar, while the United
States had no attorney to plead for the
rights of the government. He believes
that he ought to have been consulted
before the decision was rendered. A
law clerk in the land Office says that
the opinion which Lamar has promul-
gated was prepared by clerk named
Brent, and that Lamar did not give the
matter as much personal atten-
ton as he should have done.
T After leaving the commissioner |
conversed with several of his ableSt
assistants, and they were unanimous of
the opinion that Larmar is wrong and
has been misled into favOring corpora
ton unnecessarily and against all law
and precedent. Mr.. Sparks says that
this case is of vastly more Importance
than the Guilford Miller case, and that
he is more annoyed by it. 1t necessi-
tates the rewriting Of his entire annual
report, which is already in print. The
entire land Office is agog over this mat
ter, but they are saying little. Sparks
iS thor0uphly anurv